1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to apparatus for adjustment of door hinges and more particularly to combination tools arranged to remove the hinge pintle, to adjust the alignment of the separate knuckle elements of the hinge, and finally to adjust door alignment within a door frame by bending the hinge prior to pin insertion.
2. Background Art It has often been noted that the common practice of hammering a screwdriver at variable angles under the head of a pintle pin in order to remove the pin from the hinge can result in scratched and marred woodwork, metalwork or injury to the worker. Several inventions have been made in order to lessen such damage, particularly when an old pin is partially "stuck" in the hinge.
An example of a specific Hinge Pintle Removing Tool was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,969 to Provost. This one piece tool has a multipurpose head on one end of a shank which provides initial separation of the pin when driven laterally, and also serves as a lifting edge to complete removal when driven longitudinally at the opposite end of the shank.
Another Hinge Pin Remover is shown by Crabbe in U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,977. Here a hammer driving tool has a V-shaped chisel blade at one end which is used to provide initial separation of the head of the pin from it's seated position. A grooved tapered shoulder is located on the tool shank below the blade end and is used to engage the pin head and complete the removal from the hinge. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,701, Ludwig discloses a Hinge Pin Remover which was designed to remove door hinge pins without damage to adjacent woodwork and hardware. The tool has a wedge shaped head mounted on a shank equipped with a support projection to receive the hinge. The forked end of the wedge is hammer driven laterally under the head of the hinge pin in order to provide initial upward loosening motion to the pin. The opposite end of the tool is then hammered longitudinally upward to further complete pin removal.
Prior to insertion or reinsertion of door hinge pintles through a knuckled hinge, it is necessary to obtain registration of the holes through the individual knuckles. Solutions to this problem usually involve moving the hole by striking the knuckle with a hammer, bending the knuckles by means of an external tool such as a crescent wrench or pliers, or by driving an internal tool such as a drift pin through the holes in able to force alignment. This latter approach is somewhat similar to the general problem of obtaining initial alignment of bolt holes in structural members to be mated. An example of a solution to this later problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,344,619 to Colvin, in which a separate drift bar is used to lever the drift pin into a perpendicular relationship.
It will be noted that the above patents lessen the problem of pin removal but do not address either pin insertion difficulties associated with hinge knuckle misalignment or adjustment of door alignment within a door frame prior to pin insertion.